My KCC Election Manifesto & Video

Monday, 5 June 2017

I’m Voting Labour Despite & Because Of

Some of my
readers have become alarmed and confused by my unexpected appearance in a recent Tory
election leaflet. So have I. Rest assured that I was not consulted about the
inclusion of my image in the leaflet and contrary to rumours nor have I joined the Tory Party.
Although I have great respect for Craig MacKinlay’s hard work on Live Animal Exports and his ideas for the future of Ramsgate Port, I
am, and I shall remain a lifelong socialist
and trade unionist, and I will not be voting Tory in the General Election. Nor will I be voting for the
LibDems, UKIP, or my former political party the Greens. I will be voting Labour
and urge you to do likewise.

I have decided
to vote Labour despite the fact that Labour
Councillors, when running TDC from
2011-15, through their utter incompetence cost taxpayers at least £14million in unnecessary expenditure (£3.4
million uncollected TransEuropa Ferry fees, £5.1million Live Exports
compensation, £2million Dreamland overspend, £5million operational loses at
Ramsgate Port and much more).

I have decided
to vote Labour despite the fact that Labour
Councillors, when running TDC from
2011-15, opportunistically supported Manston Airport; threw their weight behind
the environmentally damaging Thanet Parkway Station; failed to resolve the disgraceful Ramsgate
Pleasurama scandal allowing the freehold to fall under the control of a Panamanian
registered company and drew up, in secret, plans for the dirty, polluting industrialisation of the Port of Ramsgate which
will irreparably damage the revival of tourism in the town.

Last but not
least I have decided to vote Labour despite the fact that the party locally
appears to be riven by a vitriolic, nasty, and allegedly bullying, internal civil
war.A civil war which has witnessed the
anonymous and widespread circulation, in
and outside of the party, of information, aimed at damaging the South
Thanet Labour Party Candidate Raushan Aara, and the announcement by a senior party officer
and husband of the unsuccessful
applicant for the post of election candidate, Karen Constantine, that he will
not be voting Labour on June 8th
2016 .

All of this personal
bitterness and rivalry, incompetence and lack of political principle, whilst
sickening and depressing to me, and many
others, has not put me off voting Labour
on 8 June. Why? Because this General Election is much bigger and important than
the damaged egos of self-promoting wannabe career politicians and much bigger and
important than the mistakes, cockups and
unprincipled betrayals of a bunch of councillors who had the temerity to describe themselves as socialists.

The General Election
on 8th June is bigger and much more important than all of the nasty, vitriolic internal shit which has been a sad and pathetic feature of Thanet Labour politics in recent years. It offers a once in a generation chance for people to reject Tory austerity and
vote for desperately needed investment in schools, social housing, health care and public services, including our
security services, and the introduction of popular
measures such as the nationalisation of the railways and water companies and for
a truly ethical foreign policy.

The
General Election on 8th June also provides an opportunity for people
who are passionate about the environment
to vote for a Government which will work with the rest of the world to tackle
climate change and the destruction of our environment. And
call me an old-fashioned idealist if you must, but I am genuinely inspired by
the slogan “For The Many Not the Few”

A strange choice Ian. Corbyn is unlikely to be elected. Yet as you say the local Thanet Labour party is corrupt and incompetent so why vote for them? The Labour MP candidate is unheard of and unlikely to be effective in Parliament? You're sounding as a fanatic simply voting for the same party regardless?

Why hasn't Chris or Karen Constantine spoke up on the Pleasurama Labour corruption? She's a TDC and KCC councilor. She wants to be MP as well yet stays silent? Typical Thanet Labour silence or internal bickering